Have hit a couple of small birds but there were two others of a larger
variety.
I was flying over Suisun Bay area in Northern California in a Bell Jet
Ranger. It was just after sundown and a rather hazy evening. Suddenly
there was a loud BAM! It sounded like someone hit the helicopter with a
baseball bat. After sucking up the seat and realizing that I was still
flying and all the instruments were showing normal, I relaxed a bit. I was
carrying a photographer in a camera mount behind me. She starts yelling on
the intercom, "EEEEWWWW!!!" Dripping down onto her leg were blood, guts and
feathers. After landing it was determined by the feathers I had hit a duck.
I few inches lower and it would have come through the windshield right in
front on me. It had hit right at the top edge of the windshield and went
right into the cowling above, putting a dent there. Fortunately it didn't
get into the rotors or tail rotor. It was just a bit messy. Sure scarred
me at first though.
The other incident invovled another big bird. Just after touching down
in a Cessna Cardinal I see a pheasant walking across the runway in front of
me. He just kept walking and I hit it with my right wheel. The county
sent someone out to retrieve the carcass. Later I was told the line guy
ended up having it for dinner. At least he didn't have buckshot to spit
out.


"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...
How many of you have experienced a bird strike?

I apparently had one the other day and didn't even know it until I was
wiping the airplane down and found a tuft of feathers on the prop's
leading edge, right at the tip. No damage to the airplane and no guts
splattered on the airplane. Maybe I just winged the bird and it survived,
minus a few feathers.